Rural thefts

On the lamb

The revival of an old crime

CRIME has been falling in Britain since the mid-1990s, with very few exceptions. Police fret about rising online fraud and phishing scams perpetuated by sophisticated global criminal networks. And then there’s sheep rustling.

Between 2010 and 2011 the cost of thefts of farm animals shot up by 170%, according to NFU Mutual, which insures three-quarters of Britain’s farmers. They were up again last year, by a more modest 4%, when about 69,000 sheep were stolen. The rise continues, says the insurer. Over the past three years £413,530 ($676,000) worth of livestock, mostly sheep, has been stolen in Cumbria. In November police in the north Pennines held a kind of reverse identification parade, asking farmers if any sheep recovered from thieves had been pilfered from their fields.

August is a particularly bad time for thefts, says Steve Marsh of Dorset Police. Lambs are fat and ready for slaughter. Thieves rarely have land on which to graze large herds so they need animals ready to eat. Most are slaughtered quickly, he reckons, either in makeshift abattoirs or in slaughterhouses willing to overlook the animals’ lack of paperwork. The meat is then sold illegally. Unlike other easily nickable items, such as DVD players, the price of lamb has risen, making it an appetising option. In the legal market, prices have gone up from £6.77 a kilo in 2009 to £7.86, according to Kantar Worldpanel, a research firm.

The nature of modern farming makes livestock rustling fairly easy. Sheep are often grazed in isolated fields far from the farmstead, or on common land where they are vulnerable to raiders. Farmers can no longer keep constant watch over their flocks. At least 160 sheep were stolen in the village of Wool in Dorset in early November. Police say they were nabbed between 8am on one Saturday and 2.30pm on the following Monday; they can narrow down the time no further.

Meanwhile other rural thefts decline. Thieves used to winch tractors onto lorries before taking them to sell in eastern Europe, says Tim Price of NFU Mutual. But security on tractors has improved. Until recently the same key could be used to start vehicles on different farms. Manufacturers have fixed this and also added engine immobilisers. Insurance claims are declining. Stealing scrap metal is harder, too: dealers must now verify sellers’ identities and are no longer allowed to pay them in cash. Sheep rustling looms larger as a result.

The thieves know what they are doing, says Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith and the Border, an area with a rich history of sheep theft (Wat Scott of Harden, a legendary Renaissance rustler, is said to have roared at a haystack: “By my soul, had ye but four feet ye shouldna stand long there”). They understand how to handle the animals and probably use quad bikes to round them up and shepherd them into lorries. They target sheep because unlike cattle, which have electronic ID tags and passports, sheep simply have ear tags which are easy to remove. The shear audacity.